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28. februar 2003
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You bursted me!
My blogging of the story about Aage's pizza at the Feroe island, which refuses to accept French and German guests because of these countries' position on the Iraq conflict, was picked up by Daypop's new burst feature.
Its algorithms seems to need some tweaking to put it mildly, as it seems to focus on parts of names a lot.
11:18:20 PM 
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No sense of quality these days!
"A Romanian man plans to complain to consumer authorities about the poor quality of a rope he used in a failed attempt to hang himself, Romanian papers reported Thursday. "You can't even die in this country," 45-year-old Victor Dodoi was quoted as saying in the daily Adevarul." (Yahoo! news)
11:15:09 PM
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Man cuts off penis to prove fidelity
A Filipino man, after being accused by his wife of cheating, cut off his penis to prove his innocence. He wrapped his dismembered, eh, member in a newspaper and threw it through the window into his parents-in-law's house. The shocked wife took the penis to the police, who is trying to take care of it until it can hopefully be reunited with its owner. He is not to be found, though.
The headline at Yahoo news is "Man Cuts Off Penis, Tosses It to His Wife." In British English, "tosses it" can mean to masturbate, making the story look even weirder than intended.
A post-penile Darwin award is in the mail, mate!
10:58:35 PM
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The Moon Does Not Exist!
A startling revelation by The Mad Revisionist. In an age where many can believe that the Holocaust never happened, that the moon landings were a hoax (the site appears to be a parody of both), it is refreshing to see some people go all the way. Over the edge, that is.
10:43:23 PM
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"Hippie Jesus" book banned in Greece
Police in Greece, the country that allegedly invented democracy but seems to have forgotten about it since, has confiscated the book The Life of Jesus by Austrian caricaturist Gerhard Haderer. It portrays Jesus as a hippie who has Jimi Hendrix as his pal and who made the last supper into a drinking binge.
The book has been widely popular in Germany and Austria, even though it offended some religious sentiments, but in Greece the book is being banned, and the author and translator is charged with blasphemy. This is the first time in more than 20 years that a book has been banned in Greece.
10:04:02 PM
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UK taxpayers paid millions to arm Saddam
In the 1980s, when Saddam Hussein was the west's ally against the Iranian threat, Margaret Thatcher's government guaranteed for the British defense industry to sell military equipment and training for millions of pounds. When the coaltion war against Iraq started, the government secretly authorised paying the insurance money to cover the industry's loss.
The total amount ultimately paid by British taxpayers to arm and equip Saddam Hussein now exceeeds £1bn.
9:34:35 AM
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Netanyahu makes U-turn: accepts finance minister post
Benjamin Netanyahu, who surprisingly lost his post as foreign minister soem days ago, has turned around and accepted the post as finance minister after first declining. Prime minister Sharon sweetended the deal by giving Netanyahu increased independence and powers in his new job.
Netanyahu has made no secret about his ambition to wrestle control of the Likud party away from Sharon. The reshuffling can clearly be seen in that light. That Netanyahu now turns around and accepts a post that is unlikely to make him popular in recession-hurt Israel does indicate that he either thinks the economy will improve (or even more optimistic: that he will succeed in improving it), or that he thinks the political wilderness outside the cabinet would be even worse.
Ariel Sharon obviously bets on the opposite result. At this time he is no doubt more worried about the political challenge from Netanyahu than the crisis-prone Labour party.
7:57:31 AM
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How evil are you?
Since it's, eh, Friday, I'll give you the How evil are you? quiz!
I got the result above, and I was even honest with my replies. Good thing I succeeded in preventing my even more evil twin from taking it.
5:11:24 AM
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Blix report stronger than expected?
An article in the Independent says that British UN officials claims that Blix' new report in Iraq will be so damning on Saddam Hussein's regime it will secure the nine Security Council votes needed to secure a tough resolution.
Blix' report, obtained by the BBC, allegedly saus that it is "hard to understand" why the small steps now taken by Iraq to comply on some details were not taken much earlier. He thus offers support to the claim that Iraq is draggings its feet, and has no intention whatsoever to really disarm.
A strong report from Hans Blix may also make it possible for the Russians and possibly even the French (if not the Germans) to cease opposing military action, and still save face.
4:44:55 AM
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Idle threats
"Malaysia's Prime Minister Doctor Mahathir has warned the United States that Islamic countries may use their oil wealth as a weapon, if the the US continues to push for war against Iraq." (Radio Australia news)
To nobody's surprise, OPEC immediately stated that this was out of the question. It's not that much of a byway for the US forces in the Gulf region to run by Riyadh.
1:23:26 AM
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Discovery of secret of life 50 years
 Fifty years ago today, on February 28, 1953, Francis Crick realised that he had found the secret of life: how the DNA molecule worked. Crick, James Watson and Maurice Wilkins later shared the Nobel Prize for the discovery.
Which of the ancients could have expected that the basic principle of life was a tiny molecule which digitally encodes how to make proteins? Truth is indeed stranger than fiction.
1:09:10 AM
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Blix says results of arms inspections 'limited'
In a report due to be released Saturday, which has been leaked in draft form, Hans Blix criticises the Iraqi regime for not doing enough to disarm, or prove it has disarmed.
The exact wording of the report to the Security Council will no doubt be scrutinised carefully, as both sides will try to make his words fit their views about the conflict.
12:22:53 AM
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Fat good, carb bad after all?
In 1972, Dr. Robert C. Atkins released his book Diet Revolution, which turned upside down what people believed about dieting. He prescribed high-fat, low-carbohydrate diets that went against conventional wisdom, to put it mildly. The medical community was not amused. As results failed to support Atkins' claims, and it went again what science knew about hoe the body works, he was chided and often ridiculed. Yet, Atkins' book sold millions, and many believed in his ideas.
Now, a number of studies of his diet principles start producing astonishing results, and its starting to rock the establishment. The studies are not large or long-term, but the results are so clearly in favour of a high fat, low carb diet that many diet researchers take serious notice. Still, long term effects remain to be analysed.
12:19:32 AM
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© Copyright 2003 Jan Haugland.
Last update: 01.03.2003; 00:16:57.
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